yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Vibrant General] boodies:
Np bro! :) Nice meetin ya and again, appreciate your help regarding this GPS issue!

Need... 2... sleep.. lol it's 4:58am.
[Vibrant General] Qwijib0:
Because I've heard promises of firmware updates before from various phone companies and in the end it never happens, or happens poorly.

End my negativity with a screenshot of an i9000 device with locks to 3 or more satellites. :p
[Vibrant General] Jon C:
I agree. Post your sources to the information, otherwise, it's simply your opinion or excitement for the device talking.
[Vibrant General] heygrl:
Excitement? It's amazing what people sense over the internets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwQ0TSDUark

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=7251461&highlight=gps#post7251461
[Vibrant General] lyu370:
Just tried the fix on my Captivate. Works like a champ. Before I had one satellite in view and zero in use. Now I have 7-8 in view and 4-5 in use.

THANKS!!!
[Vibrant General] Qwijib0:
Color me newly hopeful.
[Vibrant General] lyu370:
Just played with the gps test app on the way home from work. At one point I had 12 visible and 8 satellites locked.
[Vibrant General] puremalice:
This is not working for me.

I have called TMO customer service and they said they are aware of the issue. I have tried e-wrecks "fix" but I am not using ANY satellites. It is frustrating because I show 10 in view over half are 35 and above but I have 0 in use.

If I go outside I still show 10 in view and a couple even go into the mid 40's but still 0 in use.

I can put in my sim back into my G1 and although the signal strength in view is less it is showing 9 and using 8.

I don't think there is a problem with the GPS but perhaps the software is restricting the use of the satellites it sees.
[Vibrant General] XfooYen:
Sorry, man, but that video shows accuracy to 10 meters (>30 ft.) at best! That's not accurate. My MT3G got me to 2 meters in about six seconds. It's better than nothing, but not at all comparable to lesser phones. I hope the U.S. fix does better. :mad:
[Vibrant General] androidmonkey:
Whats wrong with the compass?

What are you doing that you need so much accuracy?
[Vibrant General] heygrl:
Did you read the description/notes?
[Vibrant General] Jreitnauer7:
Will this work on art or is this just for T-Mobile towers
[Vibrant General] larryccf:
got my phone today, and first thing after getting the basics set up, went outside walking around the neighborhood - within 40 seconds of turning the GPS on, it had 11 satellites in view, and six locked

i wasn't using any of the downloaded GPS test apps, just found some gps performance pages in the native OS

when i opened google nav maps, it took slightly longer, first locating me about 100 feet from where i actually was, but maybe 1.5 minutes it had me perfectly, to the point that i was standing dead center of the street at a "T" intersection right in front of my house, and it had me in that exact placement on the map

in case it helps some that e-wreck's fix didn't, i checked my settings, and under "SUPL/CP Settings" ,the SERVER & PORT are www.spirent-lcs.com. (and yes the "www" is there) and the port is 7275

have no idea what firmware this phone is running, tried the secret code listed elsewhere on this forum, but think it must be for the samsung i9000, but on my vibrant i kept getting an error msg that "could not process the request"

tomorrow i'm going to take it on a short 25 mile trip - can anyone recommend a tracking program?

anyway, in case that helps anyone

under operation mode, it's set for "standalone"

even my compass is on the money
[Vibrant General] ArcticWolf91:
For a tracking program you can try "My Tracks"
[Vibrant General] larryccf:
appreciate
[Vibrant General] jblade1000:
wanted to thank you for your sound advice (i have not signed up for the Tmo Forums), I posted your fix two days ago in this thread, post 24

To the OP, why'd you start a whole new thread?:confused:
[Vibrant General] boomerbubba:
Exactly what does this fix do?

I have read all the comments about this fix, but nowhere do I find an explanation for what the fix actually does. I'm not that comfortable changing settings on my phone without a basic understanding what they are.

What are the settings that are being changed?

What is "Operation Mode" and why does "Standalone" mode (the default) not work right but "MS based" does?

What is the "SUPL/CP Settings" parameter? Why does the GPS require connecting to some IP address at all?
[Vibrant General] Neffstarr:
thanks brotha it works and catches satellite faster ,,about to accuracy ,,, to 25 see what happens thanks again
[Vibrant General] kraftey:
It seems that the idea that the compass is reporting average data android expects current data seems to be the issue.

When I turn the phone it seems to very slowly start to update the heading to that direction (in all programs... street view, maps, GPS Status, layar, etc).
[Vibrant General] zoid_99:
No matter what I do I can not get the GPS to lock in. I wonder if I accidentally changed a setting in the hidden menus. Does anyone have all of the defaults for the 2 menus?
[Vibrant General] heygrl:
Putting the accuracy on 1 seems to accurately locate me inside of my house. GPSTest says I'm only connected to 3-4 sats but only 2 have a -dBnr reading. Accuracy in feet is around 18-21. I'm in Standalone mode with supl.google.com. Turning off Dynamic Accuracy gives me 3 sats with a reading over 18. With the phone in my hand.

The compass works though, the arrow is pointing in the right direction.

But the phone is still being annoying when I restart it up. This does seem to improve things, so there is nothing wrong with the phone's ability to lock onto a signal, something's up with the settings though. I wouldn't suggest messing around with the GPS setting if you're light hearted.
[Vibrant General] Sizzip:
I would like to thank you all for this excellent thread. When I applied this fix, it worked for a little while then the next day it seemed to not want to get a lock. I then proceeded to change it to Cold startup mode instead of Hot startup mode (also in the Application settings page) and now my Samsung Captivate locks on in SECONDS, and within 10m accuracy. Also it works perfectly on the freeway.

TO ANYONE WHO IS HAVING TROUBLE WITH THIS FIX, TRY IT WITH COLD START UNDER START MODE DROPDOWN!!!!

It's really a damn shame and a complete shock that AT&T (and Tmobile) along with Samsung haven't JUMPED to fix this issue here in the US....How the HELL can you release it with this bug....It's almost as if they don't want this beautiful device to succeed.... It's sad to think that this might drive some people to go back to the store and return these AWESOME phones (and, gasp, maybe even buy a lame iPhone) due to this silly issue...sigh

Anyway guys, enjoy your Galaxy S and thanks again so much for the help!
[Vibrant General] Jon C:
Try opening Sky Map. Are you able to actually track things properly? My experience is that the compass swings around, wildly.
[Vibrant General] heygrl:
Google Sky Maps? A friend of mine was using that app and everything worked perfectly.. I'm using a Compass app. No twitching of any kind.

ugh@gps settings. The phone on a whole seems to work best on the stock settings for me.. I've tried it all at this point. Different settings cause major lockups and freezing
[Vibrant General] creator2456:
Applied the fix and GPS is decent now. Still not as good as the MT3GS in the family.

Before: Acquire sats in >30 sec if at all / see 5-10 / No lock unless outside in open area

After: Acquires sats in <5 sec / see 10+ / Lock on 5+
[Vibrant General] ninor:
Why does my speedtest app think that Washington, DC server is 20 miles away when I'm in north Florida? I am trying to test HSPA+ speed since TMO rolled out their HSPA+ service in my city today, but I keep getting crappy speeds due to server being far away.
[Vibrant General] granduke:
Thought this worked for me.

No luck, only get one fixed sat.
[Vibrant General] aohmer:
Well I contacted t-mo support this morning on-line, my "agent" was not aware of any issues .... yeah ... ok :)
[Vibrant General] jrwingate6:
Before applying the fix my GPS would lock on in 30 seconds with 90 feet accuracy. After the fix it locks on in 10 seconds with 25 feet accuracy. It worked for me.
[Vibrant General] ttabbal:
Mine seems "stuck". Same with a compass app. Irritating. The GPS fix does seem to have helped though. I can actually get a GPS fix and hold it for a while anyway, even in my office, which sucks for GPS signals. Outside I got down to 20ft, which is good enough.

I don't suppose there's a way to fool with the compass?

Thanks for the GPS fix, this is good enough now to use for real location stuff. It took a few tries to get it to work though. Keep messing with it if you don't get it the first time. I also got better results setting the accuracy field to 1.

I do think that GPSTest isn't displaying which sats it's using properly though. Perhaps it's not getting good data from the OS/GPS driver?
[Vibrant General] naplesbill:
There is an app in the Market called Compass. It includes a compass calibration feature.
[Vibrant General] ttabbal:
That seemed to help. I never did quite get the "figure 8" thing, had to look it up on youtube. :D Now it's just really slow to react, but it does eventually get there. 5-10 seconds for a large change of direction. Far better than it was.

Using the compass app, I found something odd. If I set the phone flat, it seems to work OK as a compass. If I tilt it along the long axis of the phone, the compass moves! It's almost like an old-school compass that way. Something to be aware of for those having issues. How you hold it does matter. It would be nice if it didn't do that. :)
[Vibrant General] boomerbubba:
This comment about the compass (and subsequent replies) are interesting, but not relevant to this thread. The compass issue, which affects the orientation of the phone, is different from the GPS issue, which affect the reported position of the phone on the globe.

From the many threads on these subjects, it seems that the compass problem is due to a misreading of the compass sensor. The orientation being reported is apparently not the instantaneous direction, but an average direction over some recent time period.

That has nothing to do with the "fix" to the GPS problem, which seems to involve the settings for obtaining GPS coordinates from the satellites and from network-assisted GPS servers on the ground.

Two distinct issues. Compass = Which way is north? GPS = Where am I?
[Vibrant General] heygrl:
These settings work best for me

Under

www.spirent-lcs.com

7275 (all stock)

Under application settings

Operating Mode:Standalone

Accuracy:20

Use SkyHook:On

Takes about 30 seconds to get a lock but you will get one.
[Vibrant General] XfooYen:
Call TMO customer service and let 'em know!

I just got off the phone with t-mo customer service and was told that I was the first to complain about the GPS (and compass) issue. He said it was not a "known issue". The agent told me that their info is taken from customer calls only and if enough calls come in about a flaw it is then elevated to "known issue" status. Then, and only then, does it get purposed to fix.

Now, we in the forum KNOW it's an issue because it's all over the web but if TMO doesn't hear from you they aren't going to fix anything.

XDA is great and thanks for the (temporary) fix, but if we want to see anything official OTA from either T-mobile or Sammy, do yourselves a favor and contact them RIGHT NOW. So pick up the phone! (it's that thing you're holding wrong)

Update: I also just contacted Samsung tech support. I made it to level 3 tech (big whoop) and the techie had not heard of the issue(s) concerning GPS. I described the settings fix in this forum and not only was he interested, he wrote all the info down. He talked to others and confirmed with one of their phones that GPS was not accurate with stock firmare/settings. He put me on some "callback" list to inform me of any progress regarding GPS or compass issues. Please do the same. Let these companies know that a great phone is going to become a failure without a firmware fix PRONTO.
[Vibrant General] shaneaus:
I generated this post on the Captivate forums. Since I got a lot of my information by reading this thread I thought I would put up a link. If anyone has anything to add please PM me and I'll update my post.

I had the best results (after hours of testing) with the following setup:

Application Settings/Operation Mode/MS Assisted

Application Settings/Operation Mode/SkyHook/ON (VERY IMPORTANT)

SUPL/CP Settings/SErver FQDN Type/AUTO Config

I consistently locked satellites in under 3 seconds and had up to 10 satellites locked with strong signals by 22 seconds. On many tests I had up to 9 satellites locked in with strong signals in under 6 seconds.
[Vibrant General] XfooYen:
SkyHook, I believe uses data from cell towers, wi-fi signals, and GPS concurrently to improve location accuracy (particularly in rural areas or in places that don't get good GPS readings). If so, turning on SkyHook does two things which I don't want; It will drain the battery much faster and will give a false sense of accuracy regarding GPS alone. I agree that turning it on for now might be the best way to get quicker and more accurate readings but it most certainly does not make GPS reception any better. It is a separate technology.

Thank's tho for the test.
[Vibrant General] heygrl:
Phone works best on Standalone mode for me with the stock spirent settings..
[Vibrant General] Jon C:
Skyhook and Auto Config 'fix' this for me, and can even locate me indoors. So, for now, that's great. However, the point still remains: the GPS antenna by itself cannot locate my position with any amount of accuracy.

Using heygrl's settings (Skyhook on) on the previous page, Maps shows a lock within 2 seconds. Default settings (Skyhook off) never locked, and the original 'fix' never locked. All of these tests were performed with some of the clearest skies Seattle has seen all year. I even stood out in the middle of my street, looking like an asshole...

It works in the city (because of Skyhook, I imagine), but I wonder: what will it be like, on a rural road trip, where you're relying mostly on the GPS?

And then, of course, there's this crappy compass... :(

Please, Samsung, just say "We'll take care of it". That's all I really want at this point.
[Vibrant General] Argusi:
Found some info here which may be of interest. Only had a few minutes to google, but I think if you have a reliable network connection and want to still use internet etc, MS Based would be the best bet. Seems to explain why some settings are "faster" than others.

Standalone - Your handset has no connection to the network, and uses only the GPS satellite signals it can currently receive to try and establish a location.

MS Based - Your handset is connected to the network, and uses the GPS signals + a location signal from the network.

MS Assisted - Your handset is connected to the network, uses GPS signals + a location signal then relays its 'fix' to the server, which then uses the signal strength from your phone to the network towers to further plot your position. You can still maintain voice communication in this scenario, but not 'Internet/Network service' ie Web Browser, IM, streaming TV etc..

MS Assisted/Hybrid - Same as above, but network functionality remains. Normally only in areas with exceptional coverage.
[Vibrant General] jblade1000:
i've had some really choppy starts with the fix, and eventually it got to a point where it kept rebooting the phone, or at least touchwiz. It would load up, scan media, do all the start up stuff, then lock up, turn the screen off. Hitting the lock button/power button does nothing while it resets itself. Then it resets, the screen lights up and it goes into "searching" for the tmo network while doing the storage preprations, and other boot up stuff. Anyone else got any funky restarts going on? I started uninstalling stuff one by one trying to figure out why its doing that but sometimes it boots up fine, somtimes it boots but doesnt ever find tmo's network, and sometimes it just does the above. It will boot up if the SIM card is out. I may start a new thread...

Anyways, I changed back to completely stock as far as gps is concerned, standalone only, spirent, etc. Performance is on par with the fix, which is very odd considering it didnt work like that out of the box. I also picked up motonav, took the sim card out of my phone (the only way to guarantee it'll boot all the way up by the way) and it finds me instantantly and navigated fine. I like the fact that no data connection at all is needed (unlike googlemaps which needs it to stream the maps?). I will continue to test it out until im comfortable getting rid of my garmin streetpilot c550 (which i got in like 06 or 07 and never bought updated maps for)
[Vibrant General] teronzhul:
I took a 13 hour trip today (florida to ohio). Three times my phone did exactly as you described, screen off and unresponsive to any button press. I am going back to florida in three days and will try it with stock settings. Currently I am using the settings from this thread.
[Vibrant General] heygrl:
I have to agree with this comment on a whole. Messing with the GPS settings (especially turning on MS-Based) will lock 'er up most of the time.
[Vibrant General] halfhp:
Am I the only one that has noticed that simply powering the phone off and then back on is enough to fix the problem (temporarily)?

Perhaps thats why it seems like every permutation of magic config fixes seems to work equally well, since they all share the common step of rebooting?

Just speculation on my part but still food for thought.
[Vibrant General] jblade1000:
yeah but now i feel bad because I've set things back the way the were but the phone still does it.:mad:

although today it happened while i was at work listening to music while it was charging. I've noticed that the phone gets quite hot if you do stuff on it while its charging. Like 116 degrees hot according to my curvefish battery widget ( i totally ignore the notificaiton bar battery that thing is useless). Is it possible that the heat may have affected the simcard? that would explain the searching for network piece and why pulling the simcard lets it boot all the way up.
[Vibrant General] heygrl:
Yeah I think what causes this is apps that ask for a GPS fix and can't get one fast enough. It never happened before. I want to do a full reset but I have sims app data I don't want to lose.
[Vibrant General] jblade1000:
yeah same here, dont want to do a factory wipe unless its the last resort. gonna start a new thread so as not to take this one too far off topic
[Vibrant General] darkknight49:
I guess I didn't have a problem. I tried the fix and it made things worse for me so I just went back to original settings.
[Vibrant General] jblade1000:
yeah this morning i turned skyhook on and left everything else "stock", locks quicker, found more satellites, etc. makes sense given the explanation of what it does. As far as battery drain, it appeared to be the same as stock and the same as the fix. Plus I don't ever see myself extensively using the gps when im not in my own car with a car charger (i.e. on foot, or geo-caching, etc) so battery drain isn't a top concern. Replacing my garmin is. BTW, Im using motonav now, and continuing testing.
[Vibrant General] puremalice:
I have noticed that my phone does get VERY hot at times when charging and using the GPS together. The last three days my phone has randomly started rebooting while trying to access My Tracks app.

I have tried all of the settings in this thread and others and although I am receiving great signal strength this phone doesn't use any of them.

GPS has never really worked. It is all over the place and I called TMO on this on the 16th the day after I got the phone. I plan to do a full factory reset this A.M. and then most likely return it for another phone. If after that I don't hear from TMO or Samsung that they acknowledge the issue and are working towards a fix I am going to return it all together and find a working phone.
[Vibrant General] Msoar16:
My Vibrant work better with the factory settings, most times I/m lock on 3+ sat's, could only get one to lock with the fix.
[Vibrant General] radi0chik:
So I did a whois domain lookup on spirent-lcs.com and that domain isn't even registered. (I'll wait and see how long that lasts after I post this!) :) Maybe that's why our GPS units aren't working? If the phone is sitting waiting for a return from that website for its settings or whatever, and the website times out, we'd never get a fix.
[Vibrant General] Keslynn:
I have noticed this too. Both stock and the fix function well after reboot but then crap out after a little while.

I've also had the issue other folks are mentioning about the phone locking up/resetting when GPS can't get a fix.

To repeat another poster: please call T-Mobile and report these issues so they can get working on a fix. I called today and was told it was not a known problem.
[Vibrant General] vaughnsphotoart:
Tested fix, reverting

Testing from at my desk indoors, I got a faster fix with the standard settings.

Pity about the GPS. I hope a proper fix will be sent out OTA.
[Vibrant General] enigmameusa:
Has anyone tried the app GPS Nmea Monitor?

"Displays NMEA sentence strings read from the GPS.

Buttons to toggle GPS on/off and record the NMEA strings to the SD card.

This app displays the raw data coming from the GPS chip. Can be used to check GPS functionality on your phone."

It sounds useful, but I don't think I would be able to understand the results
[Vibrant General] JDM9499:
location

Well, I've tried all of these settings, and for the most part do not notice any difference. I lock with the original settings (sometimes), and I also lock in the settings suggested by others (sometimes).

My question though, as this would be obviously a major factor into say, how long it takes for the device to lock on to satellites, and, if it does even decide to lock at all! So...my question is, if your getting good or bad GPS performance, where are you generally located?

I myself am located in the heart of Manhattan, New York. So, without surprise I am and have always (no matter what device) get poor GPS performance. So for me, testing out these different settings are utterly useless because I will never get a lock quicker than a couple minutes. Period. I have since just given up, and will wait for Samsung to fix the software issue. Using the cell towers to navigate my way through the concrete jungle has always been better than using GPS anyways.

Those that live outside a city and use GPS all the time, I hope one of the many suggested settings serves you well.

- Cheers
[Vibrant General] radi0chik:
nah the monitor wouldn't help figure out why it doesn't get a lock. The NMEA data out is just the GPS spitting out the latitude/longitude, elevation, etc once you GET the lock. It won't explain why we don't have it locked in the first place. :(
[Vibrant General] MTC44:
Same. Of course, I didn't test this until after I switched and it took me a few days to figure out why the "fix" hadn't fixed anything.